Where It All Goes Down
Adenville, Utah, 1896
Adenville is a "typical Utah town" (1.2) of "twenty-five hundred people, of which about two thousand were Mormons and the rest Catholics and Protestants" (1.3). It's "typical"-ness just keeps coming, too.
Adenville fits the stereotype of the American small town: It's reasonably safe and economically stable. Most men have a specific job (butcher, baker, candlestick maker) that determines their function in the community, and most women care for their homes and children. The people aren't rich, but they aren't poor.
Adenville functions as an independent unit that makes you wonder why the outside world exists at all. In The Great Brain, it doesn't, except as that mythical place Papa's inventions come from and where all the boys will eventually go to Catholic school. Because Adenville is in Utah, there is a large Mormon population, but other than some schoolboy fights, religious differences seem to be tolerated well. The major influence of the Mormon Church is apparent in the Z.C.M.I. stores, which are where most people, including non-Mormons, do their shopping.
As 1896, it's "the year the territory became a State" (1.1), so Utah's Wild West days are officially behind it. However, the boys are still fascinated by the idea of "Indians" and have great respect for their uncle, the county marshal. In 1896, life for kids is very different than it is today, which is clear in the types of chores the boys do, the games they play, and the childhood illnesses they get.